


Teddy Bear

by cirquedusorrel



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Comfort No Hurt, Feel-good, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 04:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6738274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cirquedusorrel/pseuds/cirquedusorrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony still manages to distract him from his work from 7000 miles away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teddy Bear

Tony gives it to him because of course Tony would. The garish, but accurately coloured Iron Man bear sits on a shelf in the office that the Air Force installs him in while he’s overseas. He tries valiantly to ignore it, but due to Tony’s influence, those distinct shades of red and gold together always get his attention even when he sees them out of the corner of his eye. Tony still manages to distract him from his work from 7000 miles away.

Rhodey intends to throw the teddy bear away. It’s always just one item too far down his to do list and so months pass and it doesn’t happen. Then one day there’s a superior officer who just—fiddles—with it. That night he takes it back to his room, throws it on his bed and spends a few hours watching bootleg movies on his Stark laptop. When he falls asleep at 0300 hours, he’s too tired to move aside the Iron Man teddy so he spends his first night with the teddy bear with its head digging into his side. Two days later and he wakes up hugging it.

Missing Tony isn’t a new prospect. Most of their relationship has been defined by long distances and Rhodey is used to that ache that’s as familiar to him as Tony’s kisses. He has a hundred thousand remedies but no cure. The teddy bear stays in his bed.

In his room, he doesn’t have to worry about maintaining a front and it’s the only place he allows himself to miss Tony, but it’s been almost twenty years of this constant ache when he’s deployed so he’s not sure how the teddy bear worms its way into his life. But somehow within the month he’s watching bad sci-fi movies and making all the _best_ jokes to the bear, to Tony. When he was 23, he’d spend months without hearing Tony’s voice. Now he can call him whenever he wants. He still sleeps with the teddy bear.

Three weeks later, on the pretense of needing to make sure that the USAF hadn’t fucked up War Machine _again_ , Tony finds his way to Izmir, Turkey. When Tony’s around, Rhodey always seems to get base passes and spends all his time in Tony’s labyrinth of of a hotel suite and noone ever mentions otherwise. Of course it’s this time that Tony pops up at the actual base insisting on trailing Rhodey around for the day. The day is filled with Tony’s sarcastic comments, Rhodey’s hastened coughing when he starts to laugh without thinking, and plenty of apologetic looks to superior officers like he disagrees with Tony’s ill-timed but entirely accurate commentary.

But he’s been doing that for years so he’s definitely not stupid enough to let Tony near his room. Rhodey walks Tony to a waiting car and he makes his way back to his office to finish some paperwork so he can actually have the weekend off from work. It takes him only an hour and then he’s fast walking his way back to his room to change clothes before he suits up and flies himself to whatever gaudy hotel Tony’s booked.

He’s 100% sure Tony is at the hotel, so of course Tony’s lounging on his bunk instead fiddling with Rhodey’s laptop. There’s a long delusional moment in which Jim is convinced that Tony’s found nothing incriminating. Then Tony closes the laptop, and Rhodey can see his teddy bear sitting in Tony’s lap.

“If I knew you had missed me that much…”


End file.
